The 2004 New England Patriots rolled to a 14-2 record in their repeat season. The 1998 Denver Broncos won their first 13 games of the season before their repeat. 1993’s Dallas Cowboys were 12-4. The 1989 San Francisco 49ers went 14-2 and won each playoff game by 27 points.
The 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers were 12-4, and 1975’s Steelers lost two games, with a last-second loss coming in a meaningless end-of-season contest. The 1973 Miami Dolphins were 12-2, but some say they were better than the undefeated 1972 team.
Repeats, while rare, are usually in dominant fashion. Only the 1967 Green Bay Packers, winners of the first two Super Bowls, failed to win 75 percent of their games en route to a repeat title. The 2023 Kansas City Chiefs, however, were sitting at 9-6 after losing at home to the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Day and looking less and less likely to repeat as Champions. Heck, they had to win the AFC West first.
Kansas City Chiefs Had ‘One of the Best Postseason Runs Ever’
“Battling through the adversity that we battled through this year and guys staying with the process, keep you believing,” QB Patrick Mahomes said on his team’s season. “You never know how it’s gonna happen and to be able to go play three great teams to get to this game and play another great team. And win all those games, it was a true road in the playoffs and we were able to come through and be Super Bowl champs.”
The Chiefs did not make it easy on themselves. They bounced back from the embarrassing loss to the Raiders to sneak by the charging Cincinnati Bengals and clinch their eighth consecutive division title in Week 17.
Locked into the No. 3 seed with no hopes of getting the top seed, the Chiefs played a meaningless Week 18 game — a one-point win over the Chargers.
That set up a tough gauntlet in the postseason. The Chiefs had to shut down the best offenses and some of the best QBs in the game in Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, and league MVP Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, with the last two games coming on the road in Buffalo and Baltimore.
According to Aaron Schatz, chief analytics officer for FTN Fantasy and creator of the DVOA metric, no NFL team has ever faced a playoff road as daunting as Kansas City’s.
The Chiefs ranked fifth in Team DVOA and defeated the sixth-ranked Dolphins at home, the third-ranked Bills on the road, and the first-ranked Ravens on the road. The Super Bowl win? That came against the second-ranked 49ers.
“If the Chiefs win Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers, they’ll have completed a stretch unlike any other NFL team,” Schatz told Pro Football Network on Radio Row in Las Vegas. “I think it should be remembered as one of the best postseason runs ever.”
MORE: NFL World Reacts to Thrilling Chiefs Super Bowl Win Amid Dynasty Talk
If there was one team that could do it, Mahomes knew it could be his. “To be able to battle through that adversity and come out better on the other side; I think it prepared us for the playoffs. And obviously, we’ve had a lot of great playoff runs, but this is going to be up there, because just the way that we kind of continue to battle whenever times weren’t great.”
Now the Chiefs go for the exclusive three-peat, which has never been done before in the NFL. But after playing a regular season like this last one and then running through the toughest playoff slate in NFL history, why should they not believe they can win another and do something no one else has has done?
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